Bob,
Out of curiosity where was the shop(in Minnesota somewhere?)and who's make is the larger lathe in the photo.
Rob
The shop was built by my grandfather in about 1910 (+/-). It was located behind his home in St Paul (right off Grand Avenue).
All his major machine tools were Brown & Sharpe. He also had a large camelback drill press, a tool grinder, 6" lathe and a watchmaker's lathe, but I don't remember the makers.
After he passed in about 1945, the shop was run by my uncle, a patternmaker. He used the shop until he died in about 1994, when the heirs had to sort out the tools and the residue of 80+ years of projects. We had many little tobacco cans with nuts and bolts in them, plus drawers and cabinets full of misc. tools and parts.
By the time my uncle passed, there were no assets in the estate, but fortunately we found a lover of old machine tools who purchsed all the lineshaft driven tools from the estate, including the lineshaft, the belts, the belt transmissions, and the attic-mounted drive motor.
The family saved some pieces from the shop to remember it - I wound up with a light hung from a lazy-tong that was originally over the lathe (the lazy-tong looked like it had originally supported a candlestick telephone) and a drip oiler from his milling machine.
We found out that the shop had a 3 ft deep crawl space and the remains of an old auto service pit, so all the tools had been standing on a very flexible floor. The property was subsequently sold to one of my cousins, who removed the old floor, dumped in truckloads of sand, and turned the old shop into a very nice garage for his cars.
My grandfather specialized in designing and making specialized gear trains, as well as designing and building specialized machinery. We found out that the bookbinding machinery he designed and built back before WWII is still in use. The owner told us that they haven't found anything that can do the job better, and that they intend to retain the equipment indefinitely.